


Shark-Eye Lens, a Narrative with Teeth

by Colourofsaying



Category: Young Wizards - Diane Duane
Genre: Gen, SEALs, mythology reinterpreted, shark-typical violence, the shark-eye view
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-18
Updated: 2014-06-18
Packaged: 2018-02-05 05:25:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1806877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Colourofsaying/pseuds/Colourofsaying
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Frustrated with her lack of progress on errantry, S'reee encounters ed'Rashtekaresket.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shark-Eye Lens, a Narrative with Teeth

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lotl101](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lotl101/gifts).



 Seals, S'reee decided, were by far the ocean's most infuriating mammals. At least dolphins were helpful occasionally, as annoying as they could be, but the seals! Useless, idiotic, obsessed with fish and the grand tragedy of life. It was probably some kind of punishment from Ae'mhnuu, being sent to deal with the negotiations between the seal colony representatives and the humans up in Nova Scotia. So far, they'd made no progress – the colony seemed to think that the eventual destruction of their fishing and mating grounds was an inevitable, grand and stately tragedy, and the human wizards, as many good intentions as they'd come with, could promise little other than a deflection spell to limit trespasses, and that only if the colony relocated.

The colony, it transpired, was uninterested in relocation. Nor were they interested in limiting their raids on the fisheries, or in establishing a border between colony waters and fishery waters. The fish were there, fat and plentiful, and it seemed that the sealfolk as a whole considered the fishery their Powers-given right as a feeding ground regardless of the very present danger of being shot.

And really, it wasn't such an illogical belief; the colony had lived there, after all, far longer than the fishery had been established. If the humans were encroaching on the colony's territory, then it followed that they should provide recompense for disturbing the waters and limiting the swimming grounds. Not an illogical belief at all, but an impossible one to satisfy in a world still _sevarfrith_.

S'reee blew in exasperation and finned back towards her feeding grounds. The whole day had been utterly pointless, and tomorrow was looking no more promising. Tension riddled her body, and her fins felt stiff as she swam.

“A long swim today, young wizard.” The voice was cool, distant – not uninterested, but without the warmth of curiosity or the exuberance of excitement. There were teeth in that voice, and remnants of an ancient, endless hunger. “Well met in the journey, as your kind say.”

Her fins slowed, and her pace faltered.

“Are we not well met, then?” the voice inquired. Above her, a pale, immense figure circled slowly. “You seem distressed.”

“Well met, Pale One,” S'reee sang. Her voice wavered a little, then steadied, flattening out. “It's a long swim, and not favorable, but I am well enough.”

The shape circled lower, lower, widening as it came around her, until he hung in the water before her. She'd never seen a shark so large.

“My name is ed'Rashtekaresket. Will you make yourself known to me?”

“I am S'reee,” she said. It seemed inadequate. “My mentor is Ae'mhnuu. He's spoken of you with great respect.”

“He's taught you well enough,” he said. “My people tell me you spoke with the sealfolk today.”

Earlier in the day, a seal cow had been caught near the fishery nets and shot. Her blood had spread through the water, and in a matter of moments she'd been surrounded by sharks, devoured. The human wizard S'reee had been working with, Laurie Comeau, had been shocked.

S'reee had wondered why. Was the land so different, that the mortally injured were let to die slowly in pain and fear? That their flesh was wasted? There was no saving her, and it would not have been right to do so. She was in distress; the sharks had ended it. That was their work, and their food.

“I did,” she said, blowing a thoughtful stream of bubbles. “The fishery is too close to their hauling-up ground, and they can't seem to help raiding it for fish. I can't say I blame them; it's easier to feed the pups from the fishery, with the declining populations in the wild recently, and it is their waters, after all. Or it was.”

“A losing battle,” ed'Rashtekaresket agreed. “Are you trying to fight it for them?”

“I'm trying to offer alternatives,” S'reee said. “If we could just talk to the humans directly – !”

“It would,” the shark said delicately, “end badly.”

“It would,” S'reee whistled a sharp note of frustration. “It would, but the things they do! And I can't get the sealfolk to see that at all – it's all a drama for them, it's like they're enjoying it!”

“Romantics,” he agreed, and swam forward, slowly. She was clearly meant to follow, and after a moment, she did. They swam in silence for a while, and then he asked, “Do you know the story of the sealmaiden?”

“Where an overshadowed human kidnaps a seal cow, changes her to human form, and keeps her on land by hiding her skin, until she forgets what she is?” S'reee said.

“Yes,” ed'Rashtekaresket said. “That one. Do you know what really happened?”

“No,” S'reee said. Ignorance, at least, was safe to admit. Safer. Safer than discourtesy. The Pale One wished to speak with her. She would listen.

“Then listen.”

 

_Once long ago when the Song was young and Atlantis had not yet fallen, a young seal wizard swam the shores, guarding Life when it was right, and sorrowing when it was not, as all you wizards do. Then, as now, there were many thing that preyed upon her kind – the starving time, the long cold, and, of course, the rending of distress... but all must die. She was content, I suppose._

_And then she saw a human walking the strand, and he called to her and gave her a cousin's greeting. He knew her for what she was, and yet – she said the Sea was silent. If it exists, it must favor the Unmastered, since your kind tells me it's quietest when there's a choice to be made._

_She swam closer. She greeted him._

_The Sealfolk will tell you that it is because they have the way of stories that she greeted him, and every good story must have its tragedy. Romanticists._

_So. They spoke, the seal wizard and the human wizard, one from the water and one from the land. I believe they spoke of their work at first, and the purpose that bound them. As they grew closer, they began to talk of other things, and unlike my people, yours rarely prefer to work alone. Many of the spells that border land and sea are spawned from their partnership._

_It was a close one. Tradition shows that wizards work with their own kind; it's unsurprising that as their partnership grew deeper, they learned to take each other's forms much as you do today. He the seal, she the human. They were always switching back and forth, exploring their combined world._

_It was in that closeness that the trouble began. At first, when they talked of themselves, he had spoken of what was comely in a woman of his kind, and she had listened, fascinated as you always are with what is different, new, and ordinary for others. As time passed he spoke less of human love and longing._

Here ed'Rashtekaresket paused and eyed S'reee.

_So one day – during mating season, when else would it be? – she thought to ask him if he was lonely. He looked at her and laughed and asked how could he be lonely if they were together? She was no fool, and knew him well in any case, and knew that it meant he loved her and for a human, for this human, that she was all he wanted._

_It's possible she had changed shape too much and forgotten what she really was. However it was, when the Lone One came to her and offered her the bargain, she took it, and took it joyfully. It is rarely advisable, young wizard, to make the choice and disregard the sacrifice._

_He found her wandering the beach the next day, empty of everything except her love. She couldn't imagine she had been anything other than what she was, without magic. All she knew was that she loved him._

_But to him, she was gone. The human female walking towards him had none of her memories, none of their history. And of course, she'd done it because she loved him. A fool's choice, but her own.And she did not regret it. She could not._

_He took her in, and loved her as best as he was able. She was happy. He was content enough. It was no worse than it had been at the beginning. But when that One came knocking at his door, he took the bargain._

_For his wizardry, the Lone One would give the memories he had taken, and take no more. The man was no longer a wizard. The woman he loved had returned to him. It seemed a good bargain. They were happy._

_In the morning, the village came for them._

_Him, they banished. He had been tempted. It was not his fault._

_Her, they tied to a rock for the sun to dry._

_The seals say the humans burned her skin and she died on the rock. The humans say she stole it back and vanished into the sea. The truth is that she was in pain._

_It ended._

_My work ends at the water's edge. Within that edge is my domain. The human stole a boat and sailed far out over the deep water, and with the sharpest shell he cut himself. There was blood in the water. I have heard the humans say that three drops of a sealmaiden's blood summons a storm. It does not. Human blood, of course, lacks even that mythology._

_All it summons is us._

 

S'reeee's heart thumped inside her. Inside her for the moment, she thought, and tried to slow it.

“Thank you, Master Shark,” she said, and bowed as best she could. “For the story, and the company on the journey.”

How old _was_ he, she wondered. It had not sounded like a story heard and repeated. S'reee was, herself, not even three years old. She thought of the fall of Atlantis. She wondered who had ended _their_ distress.

“Well, your manners can't be faulted,” ed'Rashtekaresket said. “The problem with your seals – is it their romanticism, or the particular expression of it?”

S'reeee paused in her swimming. The water rippled around her. Reframe the narrative, shift the paradigm... ed'Rashtekaresket smiled, a gradual, terrible smile.

“Go well, young wizard,” he said. She bowed again, and he swam slowly away, fading into the blackness of the sea. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for the lovely prompt! I'm sorry I couldn't work in any proper bio details - unfortunately, biology is not something I'm really up on, and even less so marine biology. I hope you enjoy it!


End file.
